Beef Mandi

Ingredients

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• 2¼ lb Basmati Rice
• 5 cup mushroom stock
• 2 medium Onion
• 5 chopped cloves Garlic
• 2 Green Chilli
• 1 small Tomato
• 2½ tsp Salt
• 3 Tbsp vegetable broth 🛒
• 1½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• ½ tsp Cardamom
• ½ tsp Cloves
• ½ tsp Bay Leaf

Method

1. Wash the beef and cut into large pieces. Season lightly with salt and turmeric.
2. Heat ghee/vegetable broth in a large pot. Add sliced onions and sauté until light golden.
3. Add garlic, green chilies, and tomato; cook until softened.
4. Add the mandi spice mix: coriander, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and bay leaves.
5. Add beef pieces and stir on medium heat until the meat is well coated with spices.
6. Pour in water or mushroom stock. Cover and simmer until beef is tender (about 1.5–2 hours depending on cut).
7. Remove beef carefully and set aside. Strain and measure the broth.
8. Add washed, soaked basmati rice to the broth (usually 1 cup rice = 1.5–2 cups liquid).
9. Adjust seasoning and bring to a boil.
10. Lower heat, cover, and cook the rice until fluffy.
11. Place the beef pieces over the rice and steam on low heat for 10 minutes so flavors combine.
12. Optional: For smoky flavor, place a small hot charcoal on foil in the pot, add 1 tsp butter/vegetable broth, immediately cover for 5 minutes.
13. Remove coal before serving.
14. Fluff rice and serve beef mandi with salad or chutney.

About the ingredients

Basmati Rice Oryza sativa

Aromatic long-grain rice landrace from the Indian subcontinent, cultivated for centuries in the Himalayan foothills. The grain (caryopsis) of Oryza sativa; available whole-grain (brown) or milled (white). As named, a whole cereal grain — canonical. Carbohydrate-dominant, supplies manganese, magnesium, B vitamins.

mushroom stock

Savory liquid made by simmering mushrooms with aromatic vegetables in water; commercial and most recipe forms include added salt, making it noncanonical. The base extraction is a flavor broth, not a whole food.

Onion Allium cepa

Bulb vegetable, eaten raw or cooked. Whole minimally-processed plant food; 'organic' refers to cultivation only. WFPB-canonical.

Garlic Allium sativum

Garlic itself is canonical, but extract denotes a concentrated/isolated derivative outside the whole-food canon. Marketed as natural/healthy supplement, hence mistaken-as-WFPB flag.

Green Chilli Capsicum annuum

Fresh green (unripe) chili pepper, the New Mexico/Hatch-style pod widely roasted and chopped in Southwestern cooking. Whole fruit of Capsicum annuum, eaten skin and flesh. Minimally processed (roasted/chopped). WFPB-canonical whole vegetable-fruit.

Tomato Solanum lycopersicum

Whole fruit of the tomato plant (botanically a berry, culinary vegetable). 'Organic' denotes a farming method, not a distinct ingredient. Raw whole fruit, rich in lycopene, vitamin C, potassium. WFPB-canonical.

Salt NaCl

Crystalline sodium chloride, harvested by evaporating seawater or mining rock-salt deposits. Used as seasoning and preservative since antiquity—central to trade and food economies for millennia. A mineral, not a plant food, and a sodium isolate; noncanonical to WFPB.

vegetable broth

A salt-free, all-purpose vegetable broth. Onion, carrots, celery, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, kombu, parsley.

Turmeric Powder Curcuma longa

Cúrcuma is the Spanish/Portuguese name for turmeric—the dried, ground rhizome of Curcuma longa. Whole-food spice (root), source of curcumin. Minimally processed: boiled, dried, milled. Canonical.

Cardamom Amomum subulatum

Distinct from green cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum). The smoky aroma comes from traditional fire-drying, a method not an additive. Used whole pod or seeds in savory dishes.

Cloves Syzygium aromaticum

Dried aromatic flower bud of a tropical evergreen tree, used whole or ground as a warm pungent spice. Whole-food spice rich in eugenol essential oil, manganese, and antioxidants. WFPB canonical.

Bay Leaf Laurus nobilis

Bay leaf: aromatic leaf of the laurel tree Laurus nobilis, native to the Mediterranean and prized since antiquity (Greek/Roman symbolism). Used whole, dried or fresh, to infuse dishes then removed. Contains essential oils (eucalyptol). A whole dried herb/leaf. Canonical WFPB.